Wish you were here
by InnocentSmile97
Summary: Sheldon's away from home and gets an odd... feeling... about someone. Who might just be feeling the same thing... Leonard/Sheldon Shelnard supposed to be a friendship fic but you could read it as a bromance/romance if you want. Please review - my first Big Bang Theory fic!
1. Feelings

**Chapter 1 - Feelings**

The bed sheets were scratchy. The duvet was too hot. The curtains didn't block out enough light. Even the bed-side-table meant that the night light he'd brought along was an inch or two from where it needed to be. Dr Sheldon Cooper flung off his duvet and sat up, disgusted. He was seriously considering writing a letter to the hotel manager about what an awful night's sleep their guests were receiving.

Sheldon was currently staying in "The Emerald", a reasonably priced hotel conveniently placed in the town not far from the science research facility that Sheldon was visiting on University business. It was only for a few nights but even so, he had remembered to pack his emergency food supply bag and a zombie detector he'd been working on in case of an apocalypse.

So far, the science research facility had been nothing above acceptably adequate in Sheldon's eyes. The hotel on the other hand, was proving abominable. The only good thing about it was that the sink was sanitary. Still, it was not a patch on the immaculate bathroom back home that Sheldon took great pride in.

Sheldon sat straight upright. That was funny… Was it just his superior mind playing tricks on him or had he just got a peculiar feeling in the pit of his stomach? Sheldon frowned through the darkness as he tried to work out what that fleeting feeling had been. No, not fleeting… it was still there, ebbing away…. Was it last night's Chinese takeaway (he'd refused to eat the food from the hotel restaurant – their spaghetti didn't have sausages in)? Because if he really was ill, the grumpy old room service lady didn't look like she'd be happy to sing him "soft kitty".

No, Sheldon concluded, this was not a suitable time to be ill. It had to be something else. An emotion of some sort. Unable to go and see Penny, Sheldon settled on the idea of trying to remember what he had last been thinking about. The hotel? The sink? The bathroom? Home?

There it was! Home. He must be feeling longing, desire, maybe even homesickness. No, wait, he refused to be sick right now. Sheldon felt quite pleased he'd managed to diagnose his feelings without Penny's expertise. He wanted to go and brag about it to someone, but of course, there was no-one. He wasn't at home.

Sheldon knew there was more to it than simply missing home. After all, "home" was only a few adjacent walls and he certainly wasn't missing walls here.

He looked around the hotel room. Even in this light he could pick out a dozen things that he disliked. Sheldon sighed and shook his head. Were those little things really that hard to change to suit the customer? Leonard lets him have his way with those things. He would change them to make Sheldon happy (or shut up).

Leonard… He always puts up with Sheldon's very important "quirks" (as his mother calls them)…

Sheldon could feel a new emotion coming into play. Hmm, was this one… gratitude? Wow, he was on a role today! Sheldon smiled at his own accomplishment as he settled back into his itchy bed.

He let more thoughts of Leonard into his head and with it came more emotions. Not only did Sheldon discover he was grateful for Leonard putting up with him but he realised he actually felt quite attached to the man. Maybe it was Leonard himself that Sheldon was missing? As well as being a convenient addition to his life as 'driving was above his intellect', Leonard kept Sheldon grounded. If it wasn't for Leonard Sheldon would either be in his room on his laptop 24/7 or in a cell every other night for telling a police officer how to do their job.

It was not very often that the theoretical physicist found genuine affection for an actual person. This meant Sheldon had no data to compare feelings to. Despite this, he felt confident in his conclusion:

He missed Leonard. He needed Leonard. He _cared_ for Leonard.

As Sheldon thought of Leonard and home and all his other friends, he found the bed sheets slightly less irritating. After a while the comforting images of the things he cared for – loved – meant Sheldon could _finally_ drift off to sleep.

~#~

Short I known but it's only the start of what I hope will be a 4 chap fic! This is my first Big Bang Theory fic so please, review!


	2. Our routine

**Chapter 2 – Our routine**

The keys jingled noisily as Sheldon attempted to unlock the flat door as quickly as he could. Finally Sheldon heard a soft _click_ and pushed the door wide open. He strode into the flat with the slight air of a King walking out to greet his subjects. Except there wasn't any.

"I'm back! Hello? Anyone here?"

Sheldon glanced around the room, perplexed. The place was exactly how Sheldon had left it with just the one, vitally important thing out of place; Leonard. He wasn't there. Not on the couch with a big smile and a "hey Sheldon!" Not in the kitchen making coffee. Not even on his laptop, to pass the time until Sheldon arrived.

Disappointed that his absence and return seemingly was of little importance, Sheldon proceed to his bedroom to drop off his annoyingly bulky luggage. He was glad that he would not be having to bother with it anymore as he'd realised it really hindered you when travelling by bus or trying to squeeze past the slow walkers on a pavement.

Then he went to check all the rooms in the flat. Leonard had to be here somewhere. He wasn't working and he knew Sheldon was coming back today and at this time. Surely he wanted to see Sheldon again after a few days apart? Well he must, as life must seem so mundane without Sheldon's intriguing facts and insightful opinions.

Suddenly, Sheldon stopped in his tracks. There was only one explanation for Leonard's disappearance. Slowly, he picked up the lightsaber from the shelf behind the sofa. Then he whispered to himself;

"It is the work of aliens… They must've been after the world's best brain but as I wasn't here, they've abducted Leonard…"

Sheldon ducked down behind the sofa and tiptoed ninja style to the flat door. As soon as he was at it, he yanked it open and ran across to Penny's door.

_Knock, knock, knock._

"Penny!"

_Knock, knock, knock._

"Penny!"

_Knock, knock, knock._

"Penny!"

The door opened.

"Hiya Shel- WHAT THE HELL!" Penny took a few steps backwards as she got over the initial shock of the lightsaber in her face. She breathed a sigh of relief when she realised it was just a toy. "Well it was certainly dull withou-"

"When was the last time you saw Leonard?" interrupted Sheldon.

"Oh um, yesterday. He actually wanted me to tell you that his mother is in hospital. I don't remember what he said had happened, but it didn't sound too good. He had to go urgently. He said he was really sorry and would've written you a note for when you got in but well, he ran out of time…"

The lightsaber had drooped to Sheldon's side. At first he was relieved – there was no imminent alien disaster – but he secretly felt a little cheated and abandoned. And everyone knows that Sheldon can't keep secrets.

Penny felt her heart break a little at Sheldon's crestfallen face. She'd known he would dislike the news but she had expected to be interrogated as to why she didn't stop Leonard leaving rather than being faced with an abandoned puppy look.

"Aww, come on in sweetie." said Penny, giving in. Sheldon obliged, not because that was what he had been wanting, but because at the moment Penny was as close to "home" as he could get. Wasn't there a saying about home being a person not a place or something?

Sheldon sank into the coach as Penny offered him a biscuit, which he then began to nibble. After a while Sheldon asked:

"When will Leonard be back?"

"I don't know. I should hope only a few days unless… well, unless…"

"Unless his mother dies." Sheldon finished, rather bluntly.

"I was going to say 'unless there are some unfortunate circumstances' but suit yourself." Sheldon ignored her and went back to nibbling his ginger newt.

There was more silence.

"He did miss you, you know." Sheldon looked up and frowned at Penny who was perched on the opposite arm rest.

"I highly doubt that. He'd have been quite content being allowed to watch Babylon 5 for once." reasoned Sheldon. However, Penny had seen a flash of hope in Sheldon's eyes amidst the disappointment…

"No," insisted Penny, "he really did miss you. Underneath all the free, relieved pretence, I could tell. Trust me, it was like watching bad acting and I know my stuff about that!"

"I bet you do." muttered Sheldon into his biscuit, not quite loud enough for Penny to hear. He took a bite and then said, sceptically: "How could you tell?"

"You're part of each other's routine, Sheldon. It's a two-way thing. Leonard's habits revolve around living with you; and they don't just turn off when you're gone. I spotted a few things… let me think…"

~#~

"Here you go." said Leonard, handing Penny a mug. Penny took a sip. It was sweet and milky and nothing like any coffee she'd ever tasted…

"Leonard, what the hell have given me?"

"Um, a drink?" Leonard said, trying to cover up that he couldn't remember what he'd made her – he must've just been in auto-pilot.

"Yeah, but what drink? I asked for coffee. I think you've given me hot cocoa…"

"Oh right sorry." He murmured, embarrassed as he took the mug from her hands and went back to the kitchen. But Penny couldn't help think of a certain absent doctor that drank cocoa instead of coffee…

~#~

"Wassup?" said Penny, cheerfully as she put her washing basket on top of the washing machine.

"It's Saturday. Saturday is laundry night." replied Leonard from next to the other machine.

"Well I didn't think you'd just be in here for fun." Leonard frowned but let the sarcasm go.

His washing finished and Leonard bent down, pulling out all the wet sheets.

"Wowa, that's a lot of sheets you're doing in one go!"

"I know," called Leonard from behind the mound of batman sheets, "but I wanted to get Sheldon's bed sheets done too. It would be nice for his to arrive home to a fresh bed."

~#~

Penny rushed into the boys' flat, the smell of Thai food making her stomach rumble.

"Mmm, I'm starving!" she said, sitting down eagerly on the sofa. Leonard froze half way to picking up his cutlery, staring at her.

"What?" Penny said, rather defensively.

"That's… that's Sheldon's spot."

Penny rolled her eyes.

"Raj says who cares, Sheldon's not here." said Howard, for Raj.

Leonard opened his mouth a couple of times but no words came out. Even so, he still didn't seem happy with Penny's positioning.

~#~

"You sat in my spot?!" cried Sheldon, aghast.

"Ergh, Sheldon, that was not what I really wanted you to take away from all of that." sighed Penny.

"But –" Penny held her hand up and miraculously, Sheldon stopped talking as though he was a child who had just been scolded.

"Don't you see, Sheldon," carried on Penny, "Leonard still went about your routines – he even made your hot cocoas automatically! He was thinking about you and your return home and he was clearly unhappy with things not being how you liked it even when you weren't there! I reckon he didn't quite want to face the fact you were gone."

"That… is a logical conclusion… yes… that might just be the case…" admitted Sheldon, slowly. Penny beamed.

"So Leonard will certainly want to come back as soon as he possibly can, okay Sheldon? Good. Now come on, why don't go to bed in those nice clean sheets Leonard's washed for you, hmm?"

~#~

There we go, Chapter 2! Sorry for the long wait I've been away :/ Reviews would be lovely!


	3. In his own special way

**Chapter 3 – In his own special way**

Leonard dropped his suitcase the second he got through the flat door. He groaned and flexed his hand. His suitcase seemed to have gained a ton of weight while he was away and having to drag it up 3 flights of stairs didn't help.

Leonard cast his eye around the lit living room/kitchen. Hold on – lit? Why were the lights still on at 11.37 in the evening? Sheldon _always_ turns off the lights before bed.

It was then that he caught sight of a long, dead straight plank lying on the couch. Oh no, wait, that wasn't a plank, that was Sheldon, asleep on the couch covered in a blanket with his head in "his spot". Leonard smiled at the sight of his roommate even though it did occur to him that sleeping in the living room was not Sheldon's usual habit…

Not wanting to wake Sheldon (but to be honest, he was surprised he hadn't woken as soon as Leonard was though the door with his Vulcan hearing. Maybe he was extraordinarily tired?) Leonard started to tiptoe to his room. Unfortunately, he'd forgotten he'd just dumped his suitcase on the floor so stubbed his toe, swore, and then fell over his suitcase and into his own desk. Some heavy books clattered noisily to floor off the desk. So much for being quiet.

By this point Sheldon had sat bolt upright on the couch, wide eyed. He spotted Leonard lying in a heap on the floor and said:

"Leonard! You're back!" Leonard scrambled up off the floor as Sheldon stood up in his slightly-too-small check pyjamas. Leonard was about to return the surprisingly warm welcome when Sheldon got in there first with: "You're 2 hours and 39 minutes late." Typical Sheldon.

"There was an accident on the motorway. But anyway, how did you know when I left the hospital?"

"Oh I've been speaking to your mother every day since I came back from the research facility. She informed me. And I almost forgot – it's socially expected for me to now congratulate you on the fact your mother is not dead."

"Gee thanks Sheldon…" replied Leonard, rolling his eyes.

"You're welcome." smiled Sheldon.

"Oh, come to think of it," said Leonard, suddenly remembering something, "I think she might've mentioned you… Or at least she said something about 'Insect Man'. At the time I thought it was the drugs. Although I hope for your sakes it was…"

Sheldon nodded, completely missing the insult on Beverly's part. He gestured towards Leonard's case.

"You should probably move that. It will cause Penny problems tomorrow when she tries to come in to borrow more coffee."

Leonard agreed, bending down to pick up the case, even though he had been planning to just leave it there out of laziness and tiredness. Oh well. It would keep Sheldon happy.

Just as Leonard reached the hallway to the other rooms in the flat, a thought occurred to him. He stopped, dropped his luggage and turned to face Sheldon who was just behind him.

"Hey Sheldon… um, were you… waiting for me to get home?"

"Yes." Said Sheldon simply, looking as though he was about to carry on walking.

"Well, why? I thought you would've liked being on your own? Didn't you say you only got a roommate because you couldn't pay all the rent?"

"Yes, I did say that, but I have come to realise that I did miss you when you were not here. You were away for 6 days! That's almost a week where my life was up-side-down!"

Leonard looked up in surprise. "I'm sorry, can you just say that again…?" he said, half because he couldn't quite believe what he was hearing and half for ego reasons.

"I said I missed you Leonard. Really, I didn't expect an absence of me intellectually challenging you for 6 days would lower your standards quite this much."

Leonard just smiled at Sheldon, not bothering to reply to that last comment. In his own special way, Sheldon had just told him that Leonard actually meant something to him. It felt good to be valued, for once. He could've hugged Sheldon then, but he knew Sheldon would get too confused and agitated. Instead he picked up his suitcase again and heaved it to his room.

"Goodnight Sheldon!" Leonard said to Sheldon as Sheldon went into his bedroom. Sheldon stuck his head out again.

"Goodnight Leonard! And I will forgive you for lying in tomorrow even though it violates the roommate agreement. You've had a long journey."

"Thank you Sheldon."

"But as I've been up too, you have to forgive me too."

"Don't worry Sheldon, I will forgive you too." chuckled Leonard. Sheldon looked momentarily puzzled by the laughing and then shut his door.

Leonard closed his own door and sighed. Home sweet home. He turned around to face his room. He noticed that his bed sheets had been changed. He grinned, appreciating Sheldon and imagining him changing the bed sheets despite all the trauma it would've caused him. Whatever it was that Sheldon had been trying to express back there; it was definitely mutual.

~#~

The End.

Yes, yes, I'm sorry it's a short one! But all the same, please let me know what you thought of my first TBBT fic!


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